APES Chapter 12 – Forests, Forest Management, and Protected Areas – Flashcards

any ecosystem with a high density of trees; most are boreal forests or tropical rain forests

- textbook paper= managed, harvested, & processed using certified sustainable practices - trees cut were selected for harvest based on a sustainable management plan designed to avoid depleting the forest of its mature trees or degrading the ecological functions the forest performs - logs were then transported to a nearby pulp and paper mill at a small community called Escanaba; mill= the community's larger employer, providing lots of jobs - at the mill, the wood is chipped & then fed into a digester where the chips are cooked with chemicals to break down the wood's molecular bonds; lignin is removed from wood; bleach and dye cellulose fibers; mix is poured onto moving mat- water is drained, rollers press cellulose mix into thin sheets; sheets are dried; wounded in reels, later cut into sheets - mill tries to recycle chemicals & water; combusts discarded lignin to help power the mill - run by NewPage Corporation- doesn't use wood from old-growth forests, rainforests, or forests of exceptional conservation value - from diverse mixed forest in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan; remains a heavily forested area, despite supplying timber to our society for nearly 200 yrs - FSC examines practices; FSC-certified timber harvesting operations in Mich. Up. Pen. are required to: 1) protect rare species and sensitive habitats 2) safeguard water sources 3) control erosion 4) minimize pesticide use 5) maintain the diversity of the forest and its ability to regenerate after harvesting

ecosystems with lower densities of trees, consisting of trees with open areas among them

categories defined by the predominant tree species i.e. spruce-fir, oak-hickory, longleaf-slash pine

the upper level of leaves and branches in the treetops; beetles, caterpillars, and other leaf-eating insects live there, providing food for birds; Arboreal mammals i.e. squirrels, sloths, monkeys consume fruit and leaves

middle and lower portions of trees

dead and dying trees; valuable for insects because they break down the wood for food

shrubs, small trees, & groundcover plants on the forest floor underneath the tree's canopy

tall individual trees in tropical rainforests protruding here and there above the rainforest canopy

plants specialized to grow atop other plants i.e. ferns, mosses, lichens, orchids, and bromeliads

1) plants for medicine 2) dyes 3) fibers such as animals, plants, and mushrooms for food 4) wood from trees

the clearing and loss of forests; has altered landscapes and ecosystems across much of our planets; results in loss of biodiversity, worsen climate change & disrupt the ecosystem services that support our society

a study done by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FA) in 2010 in which researchers combined remote sensing data from satellites, analysis from forest experts, questionnaire response, and statistical modeling to form a comprehensive picture of the world's forest and concluded that we are deforesting 13 million hectares (32 million acres) each year

natural forest uncut by people; very little is remaining in the U.S.

trees that have sprouted and grown to partial maturity after old-growth timber was cut

forest characterized by second-growth trees that generally contain smaller trees than primary forest, and may have a markedly different species composition, structure, and nutrient balance than the primary forest it replaced

right to extract a resource; Foreign multinational corporations pay for concessions to cut other country's trees. economic benefits = SHORT TERM

a program outlined by negotiators at the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference whereby wealthy industrialized nations would pay poorer developing nations to conserve forest so the poor nations would gain much needed income while the rich nations would receive carbon credits to offset their emissions and become carbon neutral in an international cap-and-trade system; conference ended without binding agreement so plan fell through but leaders of rich nations did agree to transfer $100 billion per year to poor nations by 2020, and much of it could end up going toward REDD

professionals who manage forest through the practice of forestry and try to balance our society's demand for forest products against the central importance of forests as ecosystems; long term preserving benefits vs short term clearing benefits

the professional management of forests

the practice of harvesting renewable resources in ways that do not deplete them

a guiding principle in resource management that aims to achieve the maximum amount of resource extraction without depleting the resource from one harvest to the next; alteration of habitats & ecology- trees cut before they fully mature - logistic growth curve indicates that a population grows most quickly when it is at an intermediate size- 1/2 carrying capacity bc growth starts slow and then slows again when reaching the carrying capacity

a strategy of resource managers that attempts to manage resource harvesting so as to minimize impact on the ecosystems and ecological processes that provide the resource; aims to: 1) protect certain forested areas 2) restore ecologically important habitats 3) consider patterns at landscape level

systematically testing different approaches and aiming to improve methods through time, entails motoring the results of practices and adjusting them as needed based on what is learned

a 1994 plan crafted by the administration of President Bill Clinton to resolve disputes between loggers and preservationists over the last remaining old-growth temperature rain forests in the continental U.S. that sought to allow limited logging to continue in the Pacific Northwest with adequate protections for species such as the spotted owl and let science guide management; used adaptive management

Public lands in the U.S. set aside to grow trees, produce timber, protect water quality, and serve as insurance against scarcities of lumber. cover 8% of the nation's land area.

stands of trees of all the same age; result of trees being planted at the same time; lack structural complexity & often suffer from disease

the certain number of years after which stands of trees are cut and the land is replanted with seedlings

stands of trees where a mix of ages and often a mix of tree species; makes the stand more similar to a natural forest

when timber companies harvest trees by cutting all trees in an area, leaving only stumps; simplest method, most cost-efficient, but greatest ecological impact i.e. soil erodes, sunlight changes conditions, & artificial succession leads to change in climate

an approach to timber harvesting in which small numbers of mature and vigorous seed producing trees are left standing so that they can reseed the logged area

an approach to timber harvesting in which small numbers of mature trees are left in place to provide shelter for seedlings as they grow

an approach to timber harvesting that allows un-even aged stand management because only some trees are cut at any one time

a forest management policy that states that the national forests are to be managed for recreation, wildlife habitat, mineral extraction, and various other uses; timber production was the primary use

passed in 1976 by the U.S. congress, mandated that every national forest draw up plans for renewable resource management. Based on concepts of multiple use and sustained yield. - consider both economic and environmental factors - provide for diverse ecological communities and preserve the regional diversity of tree species - ensure research and monitoring of management practices - permit increases in harvest levels only in sustainable - ensure that timber is harvested only when soils and wetlands will not be irreversibly damaged, lands can be restocked quickly, and profit alone does not guide the choice of harvest method - ensure that logging is conducted only where impacts have been assessed; cuts are shaped to the terrain; maximum size limits are established; and cuts do not threaten timber regeneration or soil, watershed, fish, wildlife, recreation, or aesthetic resources

a set of approaches that called for timber cuts that mimicked natural disturbances i.e. sloppy clear-cuts

a rule of Pres. Bill Clinton's administration that was repealed by the Bush administration in 2005 that made 31% of national forest land off limits to further road construction or maintenance and thus logging- most were reinstated in 2009 by state

residential development along the edges of forested land; places homes in fire-prone situations

when the Forest Service and other agencies burn areas of forest under carefully controlled conditions to clear away fuel loads, nourish the soil with ash, and encourage the vigorous growth of new vegetation; time-intensive and therefore only conducted on a small proportion of land and usually impeded by public misunderstanding or interference from politicians

passed by Congress under Bush administration in 2003 after major fires in California, that encouraged more prescribed burning but primarily promoted the physical removal of small trees, underbrush, and dead trees by timber companies.

the removal of dead trees, or snags, following a natural disturbance i.e. fire, windstorm, insect damage, disease; economically beneficial, ecologically detrimental because snags are important since the insects that decay them provide food for wildlife, and many animals nest and roost in their holes; artificial planting of seedlings may be unnecessary

organizations such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) examine the practices of timber companies and rate them against their criteria for sustainability and approve them; Grant this certification to forests, companies, and products produced using methods they consider sustainable.

publicly held lands protected from resource extraction and development but open to nature appreciation and various forms of recreation

public lands selected by the U.S. president that may later become national parks

A federal protected area set aside to serve as a haven for wildlife and also sometimes to encourage hunting, fishing, wildlife observation, photography, environmental education, and other public uses.

areas of existing federal lands designated as off-limits to development but open to hiking, nature study, and other low-impact public recreation

a loose confederation that consolidated in the 1980s and 1990s in response to the successes of environmental advocacy trying to secure local control of lands, extract resources, and expand recreational access; wise-use advocates are dedicated to protecting private property rights, opposing government regulation, and transferring federal lands to state/local/private lands; farmers, timber industry workers, fossil fuel companies & mineral extraction workers

local or regional organizations that purchase land to preserve it in its natural condition i.e. the Nature Conservancy

parks protected on paper but not in reality; parks don't receive necessary funding

tracts of land with exceptional biodiversity that couple preservation with sustainable development to benefit local people; consist of a core area that preserves biodiversity, a buffer zone that allows local activity and limited development, and an outer transition zone where agriculture, human settlement, and other land uses an be pursued in a sustainable way

a type of international protected area listed for natural or cultural value

an area of protected land overlapping national borders; 10% of protected areas worldwide

transboundary parks that function as buffers between nations that quarrel over boundary disputes

impacts that result because the conditions along a fragment's edge are different from conditions in the interior

- experiment in South America's Amazon rainforest to find out how large fragments had to be to retain their species so they could work with policymakers to preserve forests - 1970s: lots of deforestation from farmers, ranchers, loggers & miners - 11 fragments of 3 sizes were left standing, isolated as "islands" of forests, surrounded by "seas" of cattle pasture, cattle fenced out - 12 control fragments - found that small fragments lost more species & lost them faster; and fragments distant from continuous forest lost more species, but even very small openings can stop organisms adapted to deep interior forest from dispersing to recolonize fragments - problem: ranchers abandoned many of the pastures because the soil was unproductive, and these areas began filling in with secondary forest - learned that regrowing forest, as opposed to pasture, can buffer fragments against some species loss; 2ndary forest habitat also introduced new species- generalists adapted to disturbed areas - small fragments essentially became "all edge"

explains how species come to be distributed among oceanic islands; applied to patches of one habitat type isolated within seas of others; predicts an island's species richness based on the island's size and its distance from the mainland: further= fewer species, larger= more immigration & lower extinction

the farther an island lies from a continent, the fewer species tend to find and colonize it, so remote islands host few species because of low immigration rates

larger islands have more species than small islands because they have higher immigration rates aka bigger targets)and lower extinction rates because more space allows for larger populations, which are less likely to drop to zero by chance

the number of species on an island is very roughly expected to double as island size increases tenfold

single large or several small; the debate between conservation biologists about whether it is better to make reserves large in size and few in number or many in number but small in size

passageways of protected land established to allow animals to travel between islands of protected habitat; in theory, encourage gene flow to maintain population in the long term; under scrutiny for how well they work